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news
Newport Sainsbury's junction (Google Maps)Suspended sentence for road rage driver who assaulted cyclist after making death threats
A driver who threatened to kill a cyclist before attacking the rider during what the victim described as a "near-death experience" has avoided an immediate jail sentence.
At Cardiff Crown Court, Edward Shane was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, has been ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and was banned from driving for three years for the "terrifying" road rage incident on August 9 last year in Newport.
Wales Online reports that the 69-year-old motorist overtook the cyclist, Marcus Twine, and sounded his horn as he passed, something the rider later questioned when the pair met again at a red light at the junction to a Sainsbury's supermarket shortly after.
Nik Strobl, prosecuting, explained how Shane had begun swearing at the cyclist, and told him he "will die on this road today" before a verbal altercation led to the motorist leaving his vehicle and exchanging punches with the cyclist, the two men ending up grappling on the floor.
The court heard that having got to their feet, Shane told the cyclist he had a gun and would shoot him. He went to the boot of his car and began looking for something before chasing the cyclist between stationary cars and picking up his bike, holding it over his head.
Mr Twine then kicked Shane who returned to his car while the cyclist looked over the damage to his bike. As the cyclist looked up he saw Shane revving his engine and driving towards him.
Mr Twine went behind a lamppost as Shane accelerated towards him, smashing into the street light, damaging it, his car and the rider's bike.
Describing the attack as a "near-death experience", the cyclist was able to call the police having run to a nearby petrol station and borrowed a phone.
Appearing at the scene, officers reported being able to smell alcohol on Shane's breath, the driver refusing a roadside breathalyser test. He was taken to hospital for treatment to a cut on his head, the court hearing he then asked officers for the cyclist's name so he could put a "hit" on him.
A blood test at hospital showed Shane's blood alcohol level to be 175mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood (legal limit is 80mg).
Shane pleaded guilty to making threats to kill, dangerous driving, assault by beating, criminal damage, driving with excess alcohol, and failing to provide a specimen for analysis. During an interview he said he had made the threats in the heat of the moment and had not meant them.
At sentencing, Simon Hughes, recording, said the "colourful exchange" between the cyclist and motorist, prompted by Shane's use of the horn, had turned into an "appalling piece of behaviour" and a "terrifying" experience for Mr Twine.
Shane's defence, Stuart John, said his client's life had "unravelled" post-retirement and he had been "drinking extremely heavily indeed", and accepts responsibility for the incident.
Shane had a previous conviction for drink driving, and was given a suspended sentence, told to undertake a rehabilitation course, and banned from driving for three years with a requirement to pass an extended retest before resuming driving.
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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56 comments
If I were the cyclist I'd consider taking out a civil case against the driver for damages. The driver has shown himself unfit to be trusted with a car and the three year ban isn't long enough. I'd say it should be permanent. In Germany if persistent alcohol abusers are caught drink driving they then have to undergo alcohol tests at the end of the ban period. If the medical tests show they are continuing to abuse alcohol they are not allowed their licence back. I reckon that's something we should adopt in the UK.
But if you screen a Premier League Match without paying for it, you'll get 5 years!
^^^^ THIS!
Have previous, say you're going to kill someone, try to kill someone with a weapon, try to get details of your victim so someone else can kill them (but then later say you "didn't mean it"). I mean how bad do you actually have to be?
My only surprise is that the judge didn't take Shane out the back for a complimentary hand job before sending him on his way.
It's hard to have anything but contempt for courts like this.
This suspended sentence should be challenged. A 'colourful exchange' wtaf. I hope the judge has a colourful exchange in the near future.
Unfortunately the Attorney General's office will only review certain types of offence for low sentences and none of the ones committed by Shane are on the list.
Here's hoping all those elites in the legal system all experience what is a 'colourful exchange' for themselves in the near future.
Even without the asault, murder threat etc, the fact that he had a previous drink driving conviction should merit a lifetime driving ban. What a joke!
Has he definitely already been sentenced for this? My reading of the final paragraph was that the suspended sentence was for a previous conviction, and that ... oh, nope, I checked the Wales Online reporting. Well, that's grim. I wonder what the justification was for suspending the sentence.
Distinctive handshake?
OAP
Old age privilge
Appalling behaviour can be justified by the judge, who identifies with someone of a similar age. Excuses it as out of character (despite previous drunk driving convictions) and considers that pison is not suitable for older people.
If someone aged 20 had acted in this manner I would expect a significant custodial.
This driver will be back behind the wheel in three years.
Let that sink in.
He will be given his weapon back in 36 months.
Ah but only after an "extended test", one that's half an hour longer than the normal test, so he shouldn't be any danger once he's had to obey the law for a whole sixty minutes.
He'll have to control his rage for sixty minutes?
Yeah - he's never passing that.
Um, does anyone think he will take any notice of the ban? Or retake his test?
No. And it's frightening to think how many banned drivers are actually driving around, without insurance as well, presumably.
Time to put a chip in driving licences and a chip reader in all cars, so the car will only start with a valid licence present, and no one can "forget" who was driving the vehicle on a particular day, because the car will remember.
Could be easily and cheaply done. We each have a card at my work and if you don't have the relevant licence that particular piece of equipment won't start when you swipe your card. It also keeps a record of who was driving and if the machine senses a collision it won't move until a manager comes to investigate what has happened.
1984! From the dystopian future of more-than-Chinese-state levels of surveillance and control! Especially the "who was driving" bit - that's pure snitching on yourself.
You'll be demanding drivers have photo-ID and identifiable vehicles next.
I can sense our good free-living anachist population - already triggered by "15 minute cities" - logging in to the social medias on their devices to protest as I type this!
How cheap are these? How soon can we get them?
This sounds like a particularly egregious example and yet still only a suspended sentence.
In the early days of lockdown, I had the temerity to wave an arm in protest as a guy punishment passed me close in a village in Kent. I found him waiting for me at the next junction and after a "what the **** did you just say to me", he abandoned his car with the door open in the middle of a B-road, got right in my face, told me he was going to kill me and that he was going to run over me and my effing bike. I tried as hard as possible to stay calm and asked him to leave me alone. Cue a bit more swearing and ranting and as he moved back towards his car I rode off sharpish. Spent the whole of the rest of the ride looking over my shoulder, convinced he was going to try and find me and knock me off. Fortunately he didn't. The police were pleasant but apparently covid made it far too dangerous to investigate the matter any further despite giving them a detailed description of the driver, car and reg.
Bought cameras the next week and been using them ever since but you wonder what standard of evidence is required for any of these incidents to result in any sort of meaningful punishment.
Had you been astride anything other than a bicycle. The ignorant would've been in chains.
The law sympathises with the motorist when it comes to cyclists.
Not really; I've been run off the road when driving a motor vehicle and when I reported it to plod, they looked up the vehicle details and told me the registered owner has form for road rage offences, but still wouldn't do anything without video or independent witness evidence.
As you are an Ex-plod, I'm surprised your mates treated you the same as normal people. Over here according to some videos, the driver only has to say they are ex-plod to get real plod to start blaming the cyclist even with camera evidence of the bad driving.
Cool story, bro.
Cool story, bro
Does indeed look like the story of an habitual fantasist. The police are very unlikely to jeopardise one of their most useful dodges, an excessive concern for real and imaginary GDPR 'rules', by gratuitously handing out information on the driver of an identifiable vehicle
Grog is Australian so GDPR doesn't apply.
Aside from the absence of any usefull punishment, this is another case where I advocate for use of loss of taste buds and libido (though given his age, this maybe pointless).
Further to this, another option for serious offences is for the criminal to lose all pleasure centre senses in their brain.
Any biological system that can trigger a pleasurable feeling should simply be switched off.
Is there any chance of Road.cc doing a video interview with the victim and stitching it together with the photos of the damaged lamppost / transcript of the court hearing?
It would make for a great piece of storytelling and ideal for sharing to the wider public - maybe the likes of JeremyVine would be willing to share it to their audience.
Shane's mitigating factor. Mr Twine was a cyclist.
Not a driver, dog walker or jogger. Mr Twine had provided cause enough for this idiot to turn ferile.
I would've pistol whipped him with my Zefal!
"I would've pistol whipped him with my Zefal!"
is that a kind of dildo?
You better believe it. Steel tipped, with optional jagged edge.
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